# Romances or attraction between humans and non-humans
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 7, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455 "2005-03-07T23:45:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/21 "2005-03-08T14:46:27Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#):
>
> So you’re saying you were hung like a horse? :dubious:
“Were?”
Son, I’m saying I rode her like one. Hee-YAH!
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### Author:  [@Ithaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ithaka)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/22 "2005-03-08T14:48:33Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#):
>
> Robert Silverberg’s “Majipoor Chronicles” had a story about just such a topic, a young woman living in the jungle who gets into a relationship with one of the other aliens who came to settle on Majipoor. It might have been a Skandar.
It’s not a Skandar (who are the hairy, 4-armed fellows) but one of the other ones whose name escapes me - more reptilian.
There is another story in the same book of a female human’s relationship with a Shape-shifter.
Both are very well and sensitively done.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/23 "2005-03-08T14:50:07Z")
Oh, yeah. Superman and Lois Lane. Mork and Mindy.
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/24 "2005-03-08T15:13:40Z")
It’s been a while since I read it, but didn’t John Carter get together with that egg-laying Martian princess?
In Larry Niven’s _Ringworld_, sex was a standard way of greeting a new group of “people” of species descended from humans.
I also faintly remember a science-fiction short I read years ago in which diplomats (at least) had a ‘breeding spouse’ of their own species and a ‘social spouse’ for parties and other public occasions. I don’t think there was any inter-species sex, though.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/25 "2005-03-08T15:17:14Z")
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/26 "2005-03-08T15:19:29Z")
W-which one is the alien?
I mean, Elvis’ daughter, f’rcrissakes.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/27 "2005-03-08T15:25:53Z")
Touché. She \*does \*has an awfully pointed head.
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### Author:  [@Ithaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ithaka)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/28 "2005-03-08T15:26:01Z")
There’s [Perdidio Street Station](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330392891/qid=1110296425/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-5245805-9241410) by China Mieville, which is a top bit of gothic sci fi. The main human character is in a relationship with a scarab beetle woman.
Again, this is much more sensitively done than it possibly sounds . . .
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/29 "2005-03-08T15:30:45Z")
[Futz](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0064354/). It actually was a moderately successful off-Broadway play, but the movie – about a man’s love for his pet pig – couldn’t find an audience, for some reason. 🙂
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/30 "2005-03-08T15:30:59Z")
> [@Askia](#):
>
> “Were?”
>
> Son, I’m saying I rode her like one. Hee-YAH!
While you picked up on one layer of my meaning, I think you might’ve missed the other - hung as in suspended in the air by cables…? 😉
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### Author:  [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/31 "2005-03-08T15:41:41Z")
With fears that this may cause this to end up in either GD or the Pitt, what about the Christian God and the Virgin Mary?
According to the last line of the OP this should qualify.
(slinks away getting ready to be berated)
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/32 "2005-03-08T17:04:39Z")
Star Trek’s always been full of them, even from the beginning. Spock is Half-human, half-vulcan. Kirk hits on any attractive woman, regardless of species. **Baker** missed human/klingon from TNG and Voyager, Trill/Human from TNG and DS9, Ferengi/Bajoran from DS9, Enterprise has Trip and T’pol for Vulcan/Human action… The list continues…
Then there’s tolkien, the (sort of) original source of D&D’s half-elves. (The halfbreed species in D&D include half-dragon, half-ogre, half-giant (ouch!), half-celestial (angel), half-fiend (demon or devil), half-fey (Faerie folk), and dhampir (half-vampire).)
(Isn’t Hagrid from Harry Potter half-giant or something, too?)
Alien Nation got into Human/Newcomer pairings, including the main human character.
Babylon 5 had Human/Minbari (and maybe some others I missed).
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/33 "2005-03-08T17:16:40Z")
> [@TV time](#):
>
> According to the last line of the OP this should qualify.
::cackles evily::
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/34 "2005-03-08T18:00:45Z")
I have fond memories of a comic-book called “Dalgoda” written by Strnad & Fujitake. The hero has an antromorphic looking, terrier looking alien. I believe I recall taht it was from Fantagraphic press. A very religous engineer was in lust with him. Very tasty angst.
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### Author:  [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/35 "2005-03-08T18:02:33Z")
> [@Scott\_plaid](#):
>
> ::cackles evily::
That response implies that you were intending the God/Mary response all along. Which on this board means…
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/36 "2005-03-08T18:24:37Z")
Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter’s characters in the Planet of the Apes re-make.
In _Freedom’s Landing_ by Anne McCaffrey sexual relationships between the Catteni overlords and human females are pretty common, though are usually more of a sex-toy relationship than anything based on respect.
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### Author:  [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/37 "2005-03-08T18:28:49Z")
In **Family Guy** , Brian (the dog) had a serious attraction for Lois. He was secretly in love with her, one episode. Although I’m pretty sure it was never consumated… 😉
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### Author:  [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/38 "2005-03-08T18:36:28Z")
> [@dotchan](#):
>
> A lot of manga have human/other pairings, with either comic and tragic results. And sometimes both. (Ah! My Goddess, A.I. Love You, Dragon Ball Z, Hellsing, Inu-Yasha, Record of Lodoss War, and Trigun are just a few I can name off the top of my head.)
Aw, you beat me to the hanyou, you bastard! :mad: 😃
How do you figure about Trigun?
[spoiler]I was under the impression that Vash and Knives were genetically engineered.
Then again, whatever they really were, Vash was always trying to get with anything lacking a Y-chromosome.[/spoiler]
Let’s not forget the controversy in Futurama over the Lucy Liu-bot.
Nor the time when Brian was trying to nail the flautist in Family Guy.
And, **Baker** , you were thinking of Kes, an Ocampa.
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/39 "2005-03-08T18:37:27Z")
David Brin’s The Uplift War has a very well thought out romance between a human and non-human.
Then there is the question about whether vampires count as human or non-human for the purposes of this OP. Personally, since the mindset of a vampire is so often warped from what most humans have, I’d think that it would.
Eric Flint and Dave Freer have two books involving a cyber uplifted rat and human who are in love with each other. (Platonic, but still it’s a romance.) Rats, Bats and Vats and The Rats, The Vats and the Ugly.
Frederick Pohl’s Gateway books end with a computer having a close, if not precisely romantic, relationship with two human women.
It’s a very common theme, actually.
Then there’s a very disturbing short story I recall from Octavia Butler, I think it was, about a human and an insect-like alien, who had a very close relationship, and the human volunteered to be an incubator for the alien’s larvae, like some wasps do. _shudder_
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romances-or-attraction-between-humans-and-non-humans/293455/40 "2005-03-08T18:49:37Z")
The ones that came to mind were Larry Niven’s **Ringworld** _rishathra_, **Alien Nation** ’s obvious implied sex, and all versions of **Star Trek** , which assume human-alien interfertility. I always liked Larry Nivenm’s line from “Man of Steel: Woman of Kleenex” – “On the face of it, Superman could as easily mate with an ear of corn [as with Lois Lane]”.
Philip Jose Farmer was obsessed with this sort of tghing. Heck, look at his titles – **The Lovers** , **Strange Relations**. Farmer came up with a couple of ways for humans to participate in sex with aliens that produced progeny but which _didn’t_ require interfertility. Interesting to read, and not just for that.
Phil Foglio’s **Xxxenophile** comic depicted human mating with mythological creatures and with aliens, in interesting, clever, and humorous ways.
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